Monthly Recap and CFNE WOD #3

I really liked Coach Johnny Mac's monthly summary log he posted on his blog last month.  I think its a great way to get a sense of what you really accomplished and whether you worked on your goats or not.  I am pretty happy with the training aside from that forced rest weekend when I was in Vermont.  It would have been good if I could have gotten some more running in, otherwise fairly balanced.  I would be interested in feedback as well.   What do you all think when you look at it? Click on the image below to get to a size you can read.

 If I had the perfect schedule today would have been a rest day but since Im on the road I needed to take advantage of the time in the home gym.   Even though I missed the cutoff for being included in the CFNE Game Day 3 Rankings.

 “Game Day 3″
For time:
50 Power Cleans (135, 95)
50 Wall Balls (20, 14)
50 KB Swings (53, 35)

I was most worried about those cleans and knew they would take the majority of the work out.  Finished them in about 4:16.  Did 2 breaks on the balls and 1 break on the swings to finish in 8:33.

Ubiquitous Competitions

It used to be that you would have to wait what felt like 6 months for a throw down to be scheduled but now you can do a competition on a weekly basis.  I'm not talking about a intra-box competition but a virtual global throw down.  I found a link to another one on TJCrossfit when I was trying to see what was up with Triathlete Jeff Peterson whose blog has gone dark.    I really like the structure of the event which has a online event the  Last weekend of each month from February to June.   They also recognize that most folks have jobs, families and other obligations so the scoring is based on best 3 of 5 to see who advances.   Check it out here  - Throwdown Series.   Oh this last one is funny - No ringers - no cash to former CF Games participants.

With this new competition in mind I was torn whether to do the wod from this site or the CFNE WOD Game Day 3 WOD.   I decided in the end to leave it up to Sara and Fireman Bill to see if they had a preference.   Sara already had a plan so she was not joining for either.  Bill was game for either so we decided on the throw down series.   The schedule on my end was tight so this was going to be 20 minute warm-up and then just hit it. 

Event #1: Rx

PART 1 (for time):

50 Wallballs (20#/14#) plus
3 ROUNDS:
30 Double Unders;
15 Toes to Bar;
10 Front Squats (135#/95#)

PLUS (IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING)

PART 2 (max weight):

1 Rep Max Clean (3 MINUTE TIME LIMIT) 

My wall balls in the warm up felt great so this was all going to come down to whether the rhythm was there or not.   Sara set the clock and the familiar 3.2.1 go was sounded.  Bill is an excellent training partner for me as we are fairly evenly matched.   I finished the first part in 8:19 and then spent the next 40 seconds resting and adding on weights.  I quickly hit 185,  and on 20lbs and got 2:05.  Now I was running out of time.  Got 5lbers on and hit 215.  Then I realized that when I hit my split time on the watch i had shut it off.   The 215lb lift didnt count as I was 15 seconds over, drat.   Im going to try and get in the CFNE wod sometime this week if possible.

More Short and Sweet

The original programming planned to have 400m runs and some kind of OLY lift but that went out the window when the weather report called for snow and rain.  I think John and Sara have played it very smart in adjusting for the weather as it was all ice when I walked over this morning.  Some crossfitters have a hard time adjusting for safety as they feel like its wimping out.  I think its using common sense.  A sprained ankle or broken arm slows the progress down more than changing a wod.   I was really considering doing Game Day 3 if the class was small but decided to try and do that tomorrow. 
A nice small class with just Amanda, Bill and Myself hitting Deadlifts and then "Annie"

Sara is super nice and gave us the option of doing Annie first which we all decided was a better idea.  In my mind having a fast time on Annie is predicated on the double unders flowing and my warm up was good so the confidence was high.   That said as soon as the wod started I flubbed up at 15 and again at 25. this kills a lot of time.  My situps were really good and I tried out the pushing off with your hands to accelerate backwards my wife told me about yesterday.   The Round of 30 was perfect but Bill was still neck and neck.  It was very close right to the end.  I hit a new Craic House Pr of 6:35

I was able to convince Amanda and Bill that instead of hitting the strength portion we should see if we could push Glenn down a few spots.  Now Glen has been hyperfocused on knocking John out of the leader board and in fact is currently tied.  Im not in there league but was able to increase my gym record to 132.  1 behind the next person.

Ended with Deadlifts. I misread the board and thought it was 7x7 so started a little to light.  Sara and Bill both told me to go with a regular grip to build hand strength.  Good idea.  I wonder how these deadlifts will translate to a 1 rep max.  My best is 415 but havent even attempted that in awhile.

Short, Sweet and Completely Brutal

Friday February 25th WOD

Thursday and Friday's workouts on paper looked very simplistic. I have heard some read the white board amd say "Is that it, is that all we are doing today?  That is usually a very bad omen with lots of carnage sure to follow.  These are also the kind of WODs that show up in a throwdown.   I was feeling pretty rested after Thursday day off (especially as it wasnt dictated by travel) so decided to string a few of these together with a short break between them.  


So the first WOD had box jumps which have been my kryptonite so I need to find some time to work on that.

8 rounds for time of 5 pull ups & 10 box jumps.  I went head to head with Firefighter Paul and it was a good battle to the end.  After about a 7 minute break I hit the next WOD which was "Burnout"  21-15-9 Push Ups & Sit Ups. My goal was to hit that one under 2 minutes. As you can see from the left I made it with a second to spare.  

Rested for  5 minute break and went after the last one with a bit of hesitations  12-9-6 – HSPU + Toes to Bar.   This one was going to be the hardest because my max HSPU is only 15.  I was forced to break up the HSPU's each round and felt like I did a lot of standing around.  These were fun workouts and hopefully beneficial as well.

Improving by doing nothing

Its hard to fathom that on the day I did absolutely nothing represents the day that my overall conditioning improved the most.   Check out this diagram below:  

The body is amazingly elastic and can put up with a great deal of punishment, but over time, continued heavy workouts without breaks will break the body’s performance level. As the chart indicates, a workout results in the immediate degradation of the body followed by the eventual improvement if recovery methods are implemented properly.
No one knows this better than athletes using performance enhancing drugs.   These drugs are actually allowing for a fast recovery allowing an athlete to do more work.   That said I will do it the legal way by resting, eating properly and being properly hydrated.   I dont think that any athlete who is eating healthy should be messing around with supplements.  

Pull & Press

500M row - 1:31.7 - Still not able to beat 1:30.  Need to turn my damper up from 4/5 to 6/7

Strength Press:

5X5 at 115
3 at 135
1 at 155 Fail
1 at 135
1 at 140
1 at 145
1 at 150
1 at 160 Fail

I feel like I am dating Helen and channeling Nelson Mandela

Its rare that you hit the same WOD twice in the same month let alone twice in 2 weeks.   Last week I did Heavy Helen in a Globo gym with same friends and it came up again at Crossfit Craic today.   That's a bit of a lie as it was originally scheduled for Monday but postponed because of the morning snow.  By the afternoon the snow was gone so Coach John gave everyone the option to do Shaheen or Helen.  I opted to wait a day and also let someone else put up the score to try and beat.  

I opted to do a double today which is what I am trying to do when  I am home.   Morning was dedicated to strength training and some skill work.   Warmed up with sets of double unders and then hit backsquats.  Back Squats gave me a chance to rest my forearm and wrist which are nicked up and to do something that will hopefully benefit me across the board.  The plan was to hit 5x5 with the weight straight across.  Warm_up - Bar, 135, 185, 205, 225, 225, 225 and the hit 255.  Felt good and probably should have gone up to 275.

Move on to Dips after that and did sets of 10, 15, 15 and then 3 sets of 5 with 35lb weight and then a set of 10 body weight to close it out.

Then I had all day to think about Helen and wonder if I could improve on my time of 8:46.  Once you hit a degree of strength this WOD is all about how fast can you do those 400's.  Thats where most of the time is spent since the rep counts are relatively light.  Fireman Bill had put up an 8:13 yesterday which was totally sick.   As I warmed up and doubts started to creep into my mind and I channeled Greg Amundson and his advice from the Journal a few days ago and decided to talk myself into why I could crush this.   All those negative thoughts do really hold you back.   This reminds of a powerful speech by Nelson Mandela. 

I think that keeping this verse front and center will be very beneficial.   After a brief warm up we hit the WOD.   First Round 2:24, 1 second off Bill's pace.  Round 2 still feeling good 5:14  4 seconds down on Bill.  Round 3 really starting to wobble on the run and the pace is way off. Final time 8:21 a new PR by 25 seconds!  Lost another 4 seconds in that last round definitely on the run.  It would be good to do this head to head with Bill and Paul.  As I only finished 4 seconds ahead of Paul and 8 seconds by Bill.